Search: community

As a child growing up in Nevada and California, our family was very enterprising. Though we didn’t have a great deal materially, I watched as my mother’s brand new study of Christian Science began to bring so much good into our lives.

Christian Science has had a healing presence in my family for generations. My mother’s healing of cancer when I was very young brought my first close involvement with the study and practice of Christian Science - and my first sense of “calling.” Christian Science Sunday School further laid foundations in spiritual education and awareness of the Bible’s healing power.  A teacher supported my healing through prayer at 17 of a triple skull fracture and brain contusion from a near-fatal auto accident.

I am a third-generation, lifelong Christian Scientist. My paternal grandmother was a devoted practitioner. Her healing example, dedication, and love of Christian Science made a deep and lasting impression on me. As a young adult my career goal was to practice law. After finishing law school and working for several years as a lawyer, I discovered that the satisfaction I had hoped to find in helping others through legal challenges wasn’t there. Feeling unfulfilled and yearning to find a better way of serving others, I began looking and praying in earnest for a more meaningful outlet to love. This yearning led me first to many community volunteer jobs, including serving as a CASA (court-appointed special advocate for children in foster care) and performing in theatre productions geared to young children. Still looking for deeper fulfillment, I discovered the blessings of serving my branch church.  As my love for Christian Science grew and expanded, the healing work was a natural evolution and unfoldment in thought and activity. I have served The Mother Church as a member of the Board of Lectureship and also as the state Committee on Publication for Kansas. I enjoy contributing to the periodicals. I was a member of the Normal Class of 2006.

I came into Christian Science as an adult and found it to be just what I’d been searching for -- Mrs. Eddy’s writings described so perfectly something I’d always known deep inside.

Christian Science and community service were strong influences in my home growing up.  I found fulfilling ways to help disadvantaged people over the years, but in college I became convinced that the best way to accomplish lasting justice and peace was Jesus’ path of breaking through the illusion of evil and many minds to the perfection of God’s spiritual universe.  I wanted to devote myself to Christian Science healing, but wasn’t sure how to launch. My next step was to become a Christian Science nurse.

What do counseling at-risk youth, running an emergency shelter, working as a wilderness ranger, teaching, and coordinating community outreach programs all have in common? These were jobs that led to my being in the full-time practice of Christian Science! Even as a child, lessons from the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's writings had encouraged and shown me ways to help others.  Christian Science gave me a love for Christ Jesus; it also enabled me to follow him by showing how prayer transforms experience by transforming thought.  Whether confronting hostile situations, battling a forest fire, or facing physical challenges, prayer enabled me to get beyond the appearance of things to the spiritual truth that brought healing solutions. As God’s love became more real to me and the mental nature of experience became more apparent, so did opportunities to heal.

Resources for librarians — here you'll find information about:

• Promotional materials for Reading Rooms

• Approved providers

• Display tips and techniques

• Guidelines:

  • Guidelines for print and electronic displays 

  • Church websites and Reading Room website guidelines

  • Social Media guidelines

  • How to use the Cross and Crown Trademark

Description of what Sunday School is and links to various places

Where do Reading Room Librarians begin? Right here — we have compiled some inspiration for our wonderful Reading Room librarians all around the world. 

Find information about:

• What the Church Manual says about Reading Rooms

• Christ-healing and Reading Room activities webinar (and a references document).

• Curated article list from The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel specifically for Reading Room librarians.

• Webinar videos for librarians that we hope you will find beneficial.

The Bible is at the heart of Christian Science practice. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by Mary Baker Eddy, explores the underlying spiritual law in biblical healing and reformation and how it is applicable to all human needs. Together the Bible and Science and Health are the textbooks used by branches of the Church of Christ, Scientist around the world, which affirms as one of its core tenets: “As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.”